Bowlers, Porterfield star in Ireland's clinical win

George Dockrell and Andy McBrine bowled with purpose to pick up five wickets between them and trigger a collapse as Ireland crushed UAE by 85 runs in the first One-Day International at the ICC Academy in Dubai on Thursday (March 2). William Porterfield, the Ireland captain, also played his part in the victory with a well-measured 116-ball 100 to propel the side to a substantial total of 270.

In pursuit of a sizeable target, UAE were off to a rollicking start with the opening duo of Rohan Mustafa (43) and Mohammad Naveed (14) propelling the side to 33 in just 3.2 overs. However, Peter Chase prised out Naveed to lift Ireland's spirits.

Adnan Mufti (21), who made quite an impression with his stunning innings of 69 on his List-A debut against England Lions last year, then stitched a stand of 33 with Mustafa. Just when the pair seemed to have steadied UAE's innings, McBrine castled Mustafa to help Ireland edged ahead.

After the dismissal of Mustafa, UAE found it difficult to keep the scoreboard ticking over. The point can be capsulised by the fact that Shaiman Anwar (15) and Mufti stitched a stand of 27 in 53 balls for the third wicket. Eventually, Anwar was run-out, with the score reading 93 in the 19th over. It was Anwar's scalp that resulted in a mini-collapse as UAE lost their next three wickets for just 19 runs to find themselves perilously-placed at 112 for 7 in 25th over.

Dockrell, the left-arm spinner, bagged the wickets of Rameez Shahzad and Ghulam Shabber, while McBrine dismissed Muhammad Usman. Ahmed Raza (45) and Amjad Javed (23) flared briefly with a quickfire stand of 37 for the eighth wicket in just 34 balls. However, Craig Young dislodged Javed to maintain Ireland's firm grip on proceedings.

Raza also shared an association of 33 with Zahoor Khan (0) for the ninth wicket, but by then the outcome of the match was more or less a foregone conclusion. Stuart Thompson ended Raza's resistance, with Niall O'Brien pouching the catch as UAE were bundled out for 185.

Porterfield, was certainly the architect of Ireland's effort. Naveed and Zahoor had made early incisions to leave Ireland in a spot of bother at 14 for 2 in the fifth over. Porterfield then strung together a stand of 59 for the third wicket with Niall to resurrect the innings. He also shared an alliance of 124 for the fourth wicket with Kevin to provide the platform for the visitors to up the tempo in the slog overs.

Despite Zahoor running through the lower-middle-order to return astounding figures of 6 for 34 in 6.3 overs, Ireland finished up with a competitive score.

The second and the final game of the two-match series will be played at the same venue on Saturday.